Author: Maghakian Mike

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
March 16, 2004, Tuesday

Students protest in Cyprus over closure of historic boarding school

Over 200 students of an historic Armenian boarding school in Nicosia
demonstrated Tuesday against its impending closure.

The U.S.-based foundation that runs the Melkonian Educational
Institute announced it will close the school in June 2005, after over
seven decades.

News of the closure has angered critics who say that profits from the
40 million Cyprus pound (84 million dollars) sale of the school’s
prime assets will leave Cyprus.

Protesting students blocked the main road leading out of the capital,
chanting “Melkonian not for sale” and brandishing placards condemning
the foundation.

The school, Cyprus’s only boarding school, was established in 1926 by
two Armenian brothers to provide shelter to orphans that escaped
genocide at the hands of the Ottomans during the First World War.

Students and teachers claim the New-York based Armenian General
Benevolent Union (AGBU), which had been entrusted with the management
of the school, decided to close the institute without sufficient
justification. dpa mdp ch sc

April 24 Observance in Detroit

By Mitch Kehetian
March 14, 2004

DETROIT – In observing the 89th anniversary of the Armenian genocide,
Detroit’s Armenian community will hear two powerful voices on Sunday,
April 25 that will address Turkey’s continuing denial of the 1915
genocide of 1.5 million Armenians. Speaking to the community about
the human carnage that struck the Armenian people on April 24, 1915
will be Ken Kachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of
America, and Arman Kirakossian, the Armenian ambassador to the United
States.

This year’s observance of the 1915 genocide brings together a wide
range of civic, educational and patriotic Armenian organizations in
Greater Detroit, and to the coordinating committee’s leadership, the
scheduling of two motivating speakers to address the 89 years of
denial and injustice that still cloaks the Turkish-occupied lands of
historical Armenia.

In planning the 2 p.m. rally for justice at St. John’s Armenian Church
Cultural Hall in suburban Southfield, members of the Detroit United
Committee for the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, have also
scheduled a book signing by Ambassador Kirakossian, a noted scholar
and author, at 6 p.m. at Borders Book Store in Birmingham, on Woodward
between 14 and 15 Mile roads. An afterglow will follow the
ambassador’s book signing at the Hagopian World of Rugs Showroom, at
850 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham, made available by Edgar Hagopian, a
recognized activist for the Armenian cause within the forum of the
American political scene in Michigan.

Edmond Azadian, speaking for the sponoring groups of the ambassador’s
book signing, said Kirakossian will discuss his recently completed
book “The Armenian Massacres, 1894-1896, U.S. Media Testimony.”
released in February by Wayne State University Press. Kirakossian’s
book chronicles America’s public outrage against the atrocities, and
the coining of that chilling nightmare as “The Armenian Question,” a
sinister Turkish plan that was the prelude to the Ottoman Turkish
government’s heinous plan of genocide it carried out against Armenians
in the districts of now depopulated western Armenia.

The book signing at the Borders Book Store, sponsored by Wayne State
University, the Armenian Democratic Liberal League and the Tekeyan
Cultural Association, is open to the Armenian community.

In a foreword by U.S. Senator Bob Dole, the distinguished American
statesman said Kirakossian’s book is a collection of articles that
compile a “chilling picture of a ruthless, inhumane campaign to
exterminate many thousands of Armenians and drive the remainder from
their ancestral lands,” while clearly defining it, and the subsequent
carnage of 1915 as “the Armenian genocide.”

Paul Kulhanjian, a retired Detroit public school principal, said
Kachikian will focus his message on the Armenian genocide, and its
contemporary relevance within the framework of national and
international implications..

“Detroit is honored to have two distinguished Armenian speakers
address our community on a day dedicated to mark 89 years of
injustice, and how we can effectively stake our claim for justice
before a court of world opinion,” said Kulhanjian, a spokesman for the
April 25 justice rally and the ambassador’s book signing in Detroit.

Baku Sun
March 12 2004

>From the local media

ECHO
Permission rejected

The Baku Mayor’s Office turned down a request by the Karabakh
Liberation Organization (QAT) to give permission to hold three
pickets in front of several government buildings in Baku on 12 March.

The pickets that were set to be held in front of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the President’s Apparatus and the Ministry of
Defense, were to demand that the government take more effective
measures to defend Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani officer who killed
his Armenian counterpart in Budapest in February.

The Mayor’s office related its refusal to give the QAT a go ahead
with the pickets with the organization’s belated appeal. It said that
while appeals to conduct actions should be submitted at least five
days beforehand, the QAT’s request came only on 9 March.

But Akif Naghi, head of the QAT, said his organization will discuss
going to the pickets without authorization.

Times of Central Asia , Kyrgyzstan
March 12 2004

The Role of Russian Increasing

BISHKEK (TCA). Between March 4 and 6 Bishkek hosted the international
congress, “Russian language in the community of the CIS peoples.”
Organized at the initiative of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, the
forum gathered more than 400 specialists in Russian philology,
scholars, educators and public figures from Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia, Tajikistan, and
Ukraine. For the first time, a forum of this kind took place in a
Central Asian country. In the past, similar congresses were held in
Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin, and Prague.

“Each language is unique and thirsts for recognition,” Kyrgyz writer
Chingiz Aitmatov said in his welcome speech to the congress
participants. “But, following our traditions and developing our
language, we must never forget about the people and language that
have helped us to come out of medieval darkness. For this reason we
will save, protect, use, and cultivate Russian language as one of the
greatest values of the Kyrgyz nation.”

The development of the Russian language is not only an economic
priority, but also an important political task for Kyrgyzstan,
President Askar Akayev said at the opening ceremony for the congress.
In his words, the Russian language has never lost its position in
Kyrgyzstan and is protected by the Kyrgyz Constitution as an official
language. The President said that Kyrgyzstan lives in the information
space of the Russian language. Russian is the language of about 100
newspapers and several large television and radio channels in
Kyrgyzstan.

“I wish to destroy the myths concerning the passing of the law on the
state language of the Kyrgyz Republic,” the head of state said. “The
role of Russian language is increasing in all spheres of cooperation
in the entire Eurasian space, and refusal from its use would be a
mistake and irreplaceable loss. We will never choose this way.”

Russian is the means of communication and preservation of close
spiritual relationships. Unfortunately, many people today have to
protect their natural right for the native language. This was stated
in the address of Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to
the congress participants. The Patriarch thanked the Kyrgyz
government for the fact that the country “supports Russian language
at the highest level” and that Russian “has been given the status of
the official language while Kyrgyz is the state language.”

The Russian education minister announced an almost two-fold increase
of budget-paid quotas for students from the CIS countries wishing to
study in Russian high schools this year. For Kyrgyzstan the quota is
300, which is six times higher than before.

In 2004 the Russian budget has allocated US $6 million for the
program titled, “The support of integration processes in the sphere
of education and Russian language in the CIS countries.” This amount
significantly exceeds budget allocations in previous years.

The congress participants were unanimous in their opinions that
integration in the post-Soviet domain has become a reality.
Therefore, there is the increasing need for Russian as the
international communication language, which is regaining its role as
the linking, cementing component for the integration process.
“Russian language is one of our strategic, pivotal properties,”
Chingiz Aitmatov said.